Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the pre-quarterfinals of the Thailand Open after getting the better of her Slovakian counterpart Martina Repiska 21-5 21-10 in the opening round of the tournament. The former World number 1 will now lock horns with Malaysia’s Ying Ying Lee in the next round.

It was a walk in the park of Saina as she completely outclassed Repiska in the first game. The Slovakian only managed five points in the opening game, while 10 in the next one, and lost out in straight sets in a game that only last near to 25 minutes. While the Hyderabad-born ace booked her place into the next round, her national compatriot in B. Sai Praneeth followed her in the tournament by brushing off his Malaysian counterpart R. Satheishtharan 21-15 21-13 in men’s singles.

While these two enjoyed a stellar time on the court, 30-year-old Parupalli Kashyap saw himself getting knocked out of the tournament after being outclassed by his German opponent Marc Zwiebler 21-14 21-18. Besides him, Saurabh Verma also made it to the next round after defeating his national compatriot Anand Panwar 21-17 20-22 21-14. It certainly was a tight affair between the two as both were breathing heavily on the neck of each other. Eventually, in a game that lasted 60 minutes, Verma emerged victorious.

In other games, the women single’s participant Sai Uttejitha Rao got beaten by her Indonesian opponent Jesica Muljati 13-21 24-22 27-25. Furthermore, Rituparna Das lost out to top seed Ratchanok Intanon 19-21 18-21, while Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli also crashed out after losing out to Ruselli Hartawan of Indonesia 14-21 12-21.